Construction work zone accidents are on the rise. The most recent numbers from the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration show that there is a rise in work zone crashes since 2013.
On average, a work zone crash occurs once every 5.4 minutes; 70 work zone crashes occur every day that result in at least one injury; and 12 work zone crashes occur every day that result in at least one fatality.
Automated Truck Technology
Technology—more specifically automated trucks—can help heighten safety and reduce the number of construction work zone accidents.
One case comes from Royal Truck and Equipment, which offers its Truck Mounted Attenuator (TMA) truck. There are two key pieces of technology that construction workers can put on a TMA truck.
The first is a full matrix radar board, which allows workers to track and display oncoming traffic’s current speed alongside the posted speed limit. This slows down traffic and allows drivers to display messages along with the speed displays.
The next piece of technology that can increase safety is the mobile safety system, which is a camera and DVR recording system, and can reduce a company’s liability. The truck firm explains that construction companies can place five cameras in and around the truck and set them to record everything that is occurring. With this, businesses have the ability to overlay the speed of traffic on the footage capture by the cameras. In the event of a crash, having the speed can help decrease company liability.
While these are two examples, there are a number of ways to improve safety and reduce liability on construction projects. In the end, this will help reduce the number of construction work zone accidents in the future.
